This Topic discusses the legal and ethical responsibilities you will have in your role as a health and community services worker. This includes protecting the rights of your clients and colleagues as well as protecting your own boundaries whilst at work. We will also explore what to do if there is unresolved conflict at work and how to manage adverse events – situations where something goes wrong with a client.
By the end of this topic, you will understand:
- Your legal and ethical responsibilities including relevant legislation that applies to your role
- What ethical decision-making means and ethical situations you may be faced with in your role
- What to do if something goes wrong with a client
- How to make links across the sector and make referrals with other professionals
- What to do if there is unresolved conflict at work.
You should always work in a way which complies with your legal and ethical responsibilities in health and community services. These relate to many different aspects of your daily practice.
Some of these, such as mandatory reporting and child protection, have been discussed in previous topics.
There are many acts and sets of regulation which can apply to community services and health care work. Here are some of the laws which can apply to your work:
This act makes it illegal to discriminate against people based on their race, cultural background or ethnicity.
This act makes it illegal to discriminate against people based on their disability or perceived disability, or against the people providing care and support to them.
This act aims to promote equal access and participation of all people across society and to ensure rights are protected and maintained.
This act protects the rights of people who provide health information and that service providers store, protect, transfer and dispose of health care information appropriately and that they only use health information for its intended purpose.
This act promotes the safety and wellbeing of children through policy, planning and systemic development and promotes compliance with Child Safe Standards.
As well as legal requirements, your work in community services and health care will also involve ethical requirements and decision making. Ethical decision-making means considering:
- Your own views and values.
- The views and values of your organisation.
- The legal requirements.
- The model of support under which you are working.
- The rights of the people with whom you are working.
- Whether you have a conflict of interest in the situation.
Watch
Watch this YouTube video titled What is Ethics by The Ethics Centre.
You will need to think and plan carefully to help you determine the best options in each situation.
Although it may seem that each situation will have a single correct response, work that involves people and communities is often more complex than that. There may be times when you find yourself managing a situation where there is no clear-cut answer that is perfect for everyone involved. You will need to work, plan and collaborate to find the best option.
Sources of Information About Ethical Decision Making
There are many sources of information which can guide you in making ethical decisions.
These may be within your own organisation or external to it. You could contact your supervisor, a more experienced worker, a mentor or colleague within your own organisation.
You could also network with a peer support worker or counterpart who holds a similar role in another area of your workplace or seek advice from a professional organisation such as the Australian Community Workers Association.
Important Reading
You can find out more about this association on their website: www.acwa.org.au
Example
Reika is working as a family support worker. She often comes across situations where there is no clear correct way to respond.
She uses a rights model and focuses on capacity building and empowerment with her clients. She decides to join the Australian Community Workers Association so she can access some of their professional development activities and workshops.
Reika decides that continuing to learn and build her own skills as well as networking with other professionals in similar roles will help her manage challenging situations more easily.
Activity
- Locate a professional organisation which you could join.
- Find their professional development page on their website and record the details of five possible activities you could do to build your skills and knowledge in the future.
Responding to Legal and Ethical Responsibilities
Some of the legal and ethical responsibilities which apply to your work are shown in the table below:
| Area of responsibility | What you should do |
|---|---|
| Privacy, confidentiality | Only collect health and personal information that is needed to provide support and services to your client.Store and maintain records in a secure location. |
| Disclosure by children and adults | Provide information to children and adults about how you are obliged to respond to disclosures which they may make to you, based on your knowledge of the legal requirements and your organisation’s policies and procedures. |
| Discrimination | Treat all clients and other workers fairly, equally and with respect. Do not discriminate against others based on their gender, religion, racial background or ethnicity, age or disability.Be aware of your own unconscious bias and values that can influence your responses. |
| Duty of care | Provide an appropriate level of care based on the situation, your relationship with the person, the activity or task, and whether you owe the person a duty of care. |
| Mandatory reporting | Comply with any mandatory reporting requirements which apply in your location and based on the work role that you hold. |
| Translation | Provide information in a way which is accessible and relevant for all, including providing translation of written documents into an appropriate community language. |
| Child protection | Comply with child protection legislation requirements which are relevant for your state or territory, based on the principle of acting in the best interests of the child. |
| Informed consent | Provide information to clients so they can make a reasonable decision in a situation to the best of their ability, based on the information you give them. |
| Work-role boundaries | Refer to your position description and task requirements to make sure you work within the limits of your job role, and that you do not take on responsibilities which lie outside the scope of your skills and knowledge. |
Note
In a community services or health workplace, you will usually always have a supervisor who is closely involved in directing, supporting and guiding your daily work activities.
This person is key to your success in the workplace, and they will encourage you to seek out their advice and direction at times when you are unsure of how to respond. You should never feel concerned about referring to your supervisor for guidance; this is an important part of their own role in the workplace.
You may need to consider the legal and ethical requirements which apply to referring to your supervisor, and to think about the issues which are useful to discuss with them, such as conflict which cannot be resolved or breaches of procedure.
You can also refer to your supervisor for support with situations where the rights and responsibilities of clients, other workers and the organisation are affected.
Legal and ethical requirements can be challenging and can sometimes prompt a response in a situation where the solution is not clear cut.
In these situations, it may be important to refer to, and link with, other parts of the community services and health care sector. You may need to access specialist information and guidance to help you resolve a legal or ethical challenge, or to find out how an aspect of the law applies to a client’s situation.
Over time, you will establish links with others who work in different areas of the sector, so that you are easily able to access their expertise when it is required.
Discussing Difficulties
Many new workers find it is useful to set aside time each week to debrief with their supervisor. This can be helpful in discussing problems which have arisen and talking about possible strategies that could be effective.
Sometimes using notes or a reflection journal where you record ideas about how you have responded to a situation can be helpful when you debrief with your supervisor.
If you use this approach, be sure to avoid recording any identifying details such as names, ages or case information as this could compromise your duty of care responsibilities and the need to comply with confidentiality and privacy requirements.
Example
Kellie works with young parents who are isolated and vulnerable as they begin their parenting journey. She receives referrals from workers in various parts of the community services sector about situations where there is a possible risk to the health and wellbeing of a child or young person, but where there is no clear mandatory reporting or child protection issue which must be reported to the relevant authorities.
Her role is to provide support, guidance and links to community services so that young people can learn about their parenting role in a supported and managed way.
The aim of her service is to avoid young people and their new families experiencing further social isolation and to reduce the incidence of abuse and harm which occurs.
From time to time you may experience situations where procedures in the workplace are not followed correctly. You may need to take action to respond by informing the appropriate people in your workplace.
Standard Procedures
Most workplaces have standard procedures which set out how tasks should be carried out. Procedures are usually written documents which can be accessed in print or via an intranet. You should carefully read and understand the procedures which apply to your own work role and responsibilities.
Breaches of Standard Procedure
Sometimes procedures are not followed in a workplace. This can happen for a range of reasons. It may be because workers:
- Do not understand the procedure
- Don’t think it is important
- Have found a quicker or easier way to do something
- Have done most parts and will do the rest later.
Breaches of procedure can reflect a procedure which needs to be altered because it no longer meets the needs of the workers who carry out the tasks it refers to.
However, in some situations a breach of procedure can have significant consequences. If you notice that a procedure has been breached, you need to respond appropriately and quickly.
Do not assume that procedures do not need to be followed just because someone does not think they are important. Procedures can be changed using formal processes as part of the continuous improvement system of the workplace. While a procedure is current, it must be followed.
If you observe any breach of a procedure, it is important to act and refer the situation. Usually you will refer this to your supervisor, but there may be other people who need to be informed.
Example
For example, a breach of infection control procedures may need to be referred to the infection control manager or a clinical practitioner, while a breach of contact arrangements for a child who has restricted and supervised access to a parent may need to be referred to the police.
Adverse events are situations where there is an outcome that was not desired or planned for, often involving a client.
Examples of adverse events include:
- An illness or health condition which deteriorates.
- A client who is harmed or injured.
- A conflict situation which escalates.
- A medication error which occurs.
- A worker who is injured or becomes sick as a result of their work.
Referring Adverse Events
Any adverse events need careful management. You should follow the steps which have been put in place at your workplace.
This may require both immediate, acute care responses as well as longer term responses. You will need to assess each situation and then plan how to respond following organisational policies and procedures.
In many cases you will need to refer to others for support and responses to an adverse event.
Example
You could seek medical intervention if there is an injury or illness, emergency services if there is a medical or other emergency or a mental health professional if there is a mental health emergency.
Workers, employers and clients all hold rights and responsibilities in a workplace.
You need to be aware of your own rights and responsibilities as well as those of other people. For example, clients have the right to be informed about options for care and support which are available to them, whilst workers have the right to work without threats of harm or violence and organisations have the right to expect that workers carry out the duties required of them during their regular hours of work.
Some rights and responsibilities are referred to in legislation, whilst others may be an intrinsic part of the expectations of the sector and the organisation.
Rights and responsibilities can relate to:
- Work health and safety.
- Functions of a work role.
- Services and care provided.
- Infection control and management.
- Responses to a critical incident.
- Professional development and ongoing learning.
Rights and responsibilities should be communicated and shared openly and clearly so everyone is aware of what is required of them.
Strategies for Rights and Responsibilities
Some strategies for sharing information about rights and responsibilities include:
- Holding regular meetings within teams and groups.
- Writing clear policies and procedures.
- Providing clients with service guidelines and expectations.
- Displaying posters and visual information about areas of work where rights and responsibilities apply.
- Embedding standards which relate to specific areas of work in the sector in the policies and procedures of your organisation.
Example
Access the Child Safe Standards (VIC) and read through the information of how the Standards aim to protect children and young people.
Sometimes situations of conflict may occur at work. Although you should endeavour to resolve the conflict using the strategies discussed earlier, this may not always be possible within the bounds of your work role and responsibilities. You may need to seek assistance to resolve a conflict if it continues, escalates or cannot be resolved easily. Here are some examples:
- A case meeting about a client deteriorates into an argument between two professionals who hold very different views about the best practice approach
- A conflict about duties to be performed during a shift cannot be resolved between two workers
- A client expects that a worker will arrive at their home for a visit at 7:00 a.m., even though the worker’s usual hours of work are from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
- One worker who wants to meet to discuss a conflict, and another worker who refuses to participate in the discussion
Often the best approach for resolving conflict is a collaborative one, based on a shared agreement of the need to resolve the conflict and an affirmation of the intent to work positively towards a resolution.
If a conflict situation cannot be resolved, you should refer the situation to your supervisor. You can do this in several ways, depending on the usual communication channels in your workplace. You might send an email, make a phone call or speak to the supervisor directly.
The supervisor may be able to become involved in resolving the conflict by providing suggestions, directions or working as a mediator to facilitate the discussion.
Key Points
- Legislation and ethical principles are used to guide tasks and activities within the organisation.
- Referrals can be made across the sector as well as within the organisation to provide for better outcomes for clients.
- Issues, unresolved conflicts and breaches of procedure should be referred to the supervisor.
- Rights and responsibilities should be maintained and respected for workers, clients and the organisation.
- What is the difference between a legal requirement and an ethical requirement?
- What is meant by an adverse event?
- Why would it be important to resolve any conflict in the workplace as and when it arises?
